Category Archives: Contributed

Contributed, Lifestyle, Social Media

Dealing with the Digital Realities of the New Normal

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As we begin the new year and look back on 2020, it is undeniable that technology has played a crucial role in helping everyone, young or old, to stay connected with our loved ones as we experienced variations of lockdowns in the past year. However, are you aware that there are stark differences in people’s usage behaviours on social platforms, even between those who were born just a few years apart, such as millennials (currently aged 25 to 40 years old) and Gen Z (currently aged 24 or younger)?

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Most millenials are digital immigrants, meaning we remember a time before mass technological adoption. This is different from Gen Zs, who are the first generation to be considered true digital natives. They were born into a world of vast technological advances, with the internet as an integral part of their day to day. They don’t know a world without smartphones and broadband internet. Hence, how they think, communicate, use and don’t use the internet is different from the generations before them. 

Additionally, as people observe stay at home orders during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, they are increasingly turning to indoor activities enabled by the internet; communication, commerce, entertainment, fitness, and learning now take place virtually. This will undoubtedly accelerate digital transformation across many businesses, which will in turn sustain the digital economy.

Gen Z is uniquely well-positioned to continue driving this transformation as they are digital natives familiar and comfortable with new technologies quickly. Digital technology has shaped them, and we should take a page out of the Gen Z book when it comes to some habits and practices.   

Value the importance of authenticity

According to Snap Inc. and JWT Intelligence’s “Into Z Future” study, when asked to develop a slogan for their own generation, Gen Z respondents overwhelmingly suggest some variation of “be yourself” – such as “just be you”, “just be yourself”, and “do what makes you happy.” This is a positive mentality to have.

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It is important that we value authenticity over ‘perfection,’ which takes courage and confidence. We should not fear judgement or being perceived negatively for being who we are, especially when we are among friends. Honesty is a value that the majority of Malaysians, regardless of their age group, want between themselves and their best friend. The 2019 Friendship Report found that Malaysians want their best friends to be more honest and open about their feelings.

Before we can demand honesty from our friends, we need to first be our true, honest, and authentic self! After all, friendship is a two-way street – Gen Zs seem to have figured that part out.

Not everything is meant to be shared

According to Snap Inc.’s 2019 Friendship Report, millennials come out on top as the most “share happy” of the generations. Millennials are the least likely to say “I wouldn’t share that” across most categories surveyed including their love life, mental health issues, and money concerns. However, oversharing can have negative consequences, such as safety issues, loss of jobs, or risking personal reputation.

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As digital natives, Gen Zs are likely to be more private, having learned from the mistakes made by the older generations. Gen Zs’ familiarity with these platforms means that they carefully choose how and where they share. They prefer ephemeral content that disappears, on social messaging platforms such as Snapchat. For example, they prefer to share details about their love life with their best friends over private messages as compared to millennials who would share about it on social media.

Gen Zs understand implicitly that just because we can share something with the world, it doesn’t mean that we should. This is a mindset that we should all adopt.

Bigger isn’t always better when it comes to friendship circle

Gen Zs are adjusting their approach to friendship, which differs from millennials’ desire for a wide network. The former is looking for more closeness and intimacy with a smaller social circle, where they can be their unfiltered, authentic selves. In contrast, millennials are the most likely of any generation to want “as many friends as possible.”

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This is the same in Malaysia, where older generations gravitate towards forming friendships with as many people as possible, while Gen Zs (37%) are selective over the people they let into their close circle of friends.

While we all know the positive benefits of having close friends in our lives, a larger pool is not always better. According to friendship experts, a larger group of friends can take a toll on a person because there is greater pressure to open up to many different people and invest in those relationships. It seems that this is a life lesson that Gen Zs have already learned. Based on the above, we can see that there are a lot to be learned from different mindsets, and generation gaps do not just have to be a woeful reminder of “the good old days.”  Look at things in a new light and shed your preconceived notions

Business, Contributed

Beyond the Now: Thrive in 2021 with These Five Trends

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From shifting to work from home policies to customers’ increasing demand for better services and experience, organizations are finding that they need to transform faster to address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. We expect technology trends to only continue to evolve as reliance on technology becomes more critical in our current social and economic landscape. To ride out the wave rather than sink in it, forward-thinking organizations in Asia-Pacific (APAC) should rethink their digital transformation strategies based on these trends we expect to see in the coming year.

5G, IoT, Edge computing: The trio for intelligent connectivity

APAC will continue progressing on its 5G journey. While commercial 5G services are already available in nine markets in the region — including South Korea, Japan, and China — another 12 have officially announced similar plans. The increased availability of 5G will help drive the adoption of Internet of Things (IoT) and edge computing to deliver ultra-low latency, high bandwidth network, and effectively support large-scale distribution of endpoints. For example, 5G, IoT and edge computing can be applied to smart fleet management, wherein edge devices can monitor critical vehicle systems and access the 5G network to send alerts, track the flow of goods, plan routes, and facilitate communications between a vehicle and any IoT-enabled entity that may affect or be affected by the vehicle.

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We foresee more APAC organizations and cities adopting 5G, IoT, and edge computing in 2021 to become more connected and efficient. Emerging use cases for the three technologies include analyzing sensor data for predictive maintenance and quality control, augmented reality systems for remote operations, and personalized ‘connected experiences’ for customer and supplier engagement.

Security is a growing priority for hybrid cloud

Customers and employees alike now expect business applications and services to be highly available, on-demand and secure. To achieve that, we recommend organizations to embrace hybrid cloud in order to run workloads  across any environment (i.e., on-premises, private or public cloud) more easily and quickly. Red Hat’s 2021 Global Tech Outlook found that 77% of APAC organizations surveyed plan to use more than one cloud platform — be it private and public clouds — in the next 12 months, up from 53% in 2020. According to the survey results, the top three reasons for organizations to run their applications across hybrid cloud include improving data security, gaining IT agility, and addressing data privacy concerns.

Security will remain a focus area as organizations progress in their hybrid cloud journey — nearly half of the organizations we surveyed globally cited cloud security as their top funding priority next year. The challenge when it comes to security is that it is made up of different elements such as endpoint, network and data security. One way of overcoming this is by adopting an open security automation framework that unifies the different security practices using a set of automated workflows. By doing so, organizations can gain greater visibility across the entire security function, enabling them to identify threats or remediate cyber attacks faster.

Cloud-native will drive container adoption

Cloud-native applications can respond quickly to change, adapting and evolving with new features and functionalities released incrementally more quickly, reliably and frequently with less risk. As more organizations adopt hybrid cloud to increase the scalability and availability of apps, those that also embrace cloud-native development are in a better position to build and run responsive, scalable, and fault-tolerant apps on any cloud.

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Containers are a key technology for unlocking the benefits of cloud-native development. Containers enable applications to be packaged and isolated with their entire runtime environment, making it easier to move them between environments while retaining full functionality. With containers, developers can more easily release and update apps as a collection of loosely coupled services, like microservices, instead of having to wait for one large release. Recognizing that containers can help accelerate innovation, 45% of APAC respondents from the 2021 Global Tech Outlook expect more than half of their workloads to be containerized in the next 12 months.

Automation is on the rise

Customers are demanding more at a faster pace, while IT architectures are ever-changing and built on increasingly complicated technology stacks. Organizations also need to support a work-from-home productivity model during the COVID-19 pandemic. To address these requirements, APAC organizations are increasingly turning to automation to reduce complexity, improve productivity, and lower operating cost. However, they must have an enterprise-wide automation strategy instead of deploying automation in silos in order to fully benefit from the technology.  

More organizations are increasingly using automation in conjunction with artificial intelligence and machine learning to create an additional layer of automated insight to optimize business processes. Some APAC banks are already using robotic process automation (RPA) to approve credit card applications, automate payments, and validate claims. Because RPA can augment and mimic human judgment and behavior to replicate rules-based human action, it reduces the time taken for those tasks.

Open culture needs to complement technology modernization

According to a November 2019 study sponsored by Red Hat, 80% of APAC business leaders surveyed rank cultural change and technology modernization of equal importance for digital transformation. Cultural characteristics key for transformation include adaptability, inclusivity, transparency, and collaboration – all of which are open source principles. Organizations that have supported their cultural change initiatives with efforts to modernize their infrastructure and application architecture have been able to quickly develop and deliver new applications, respond rapidly to customer demands, and control maintenance costs.

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With APAC businesses recognizing that digital transformation is driven by a change in mindset, we foresee more organizations embracing open principles, processes, and culture next year. By doing so, organizations can nurture collaboration and empower employees to bring their best ideas and selves to work, which can help accelerate innovation and address changing customer and business requirements in an agile manner.

All in all, global events in 2020 have caused organizations to focus on near-term survival goals to support business continuity. As the business landscape continues to evolve, APAC organizations must prepare  for the future by adopting flexible, agile and scalable technology solutions. Considering trends such as 5G and edge computing, hybrid cloud and automation can help organizations as they develop or update their digital transformation plans in 2021.

Contributed, Editorial

Mastering Modern Photography with your Smartphone

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Photographs are the mighty connectors of the world today. You may not master any other language aside from your native tongue, but you know this much is true – a picture is worth a thousand words and having the right devices to capture these special moments are essential. Picture this: you’re exploring new views on hikes and the sun is just rising over the horizon. You scramble for your phone to capture the moment, but the image simply does not translate on your screen as pristinely as it is in real life.

In the nascent days of mobile phone photography, this was a common scenario. However, today’s smartphone cameras can capture professional-level images in any number of difficult lighting conditions. You no longer need to be a wizard with a camera to take high-quality photographs. Furthermore, these cameras even fit right in your pocket, enabling you to preserve memories in remarkable detail without the need to have a full camera set. Over the years, mobile camera technology has progressed more drastically than any other single feature in our smartphones. Learning to make use of the camera tech that comes with your phone can help you up your photography game.

Utilising the ‘Smart’ in your Smartphone to Capture the Best Moments

We have come a long way from the early, grainy photos taken on flip phones. Today’s smartphone cameras are capable of shooting in formats like wide-angle or telephoto, with crisp images boosted by high megapixels counts, and includes features like low-light functionality, fast autofocus capabilities, and optical image stabilisation for steady captures. Different exposure modes also allow photographers to now manipulate everything from the background of a scene to camera functionalities like shutter speed, white balance, focus, and ISO.

Once reserved strictly for DSLRs, these functionalities are now widely available, and sit comfortably in your hand and in your pocket. For many of us, taking the perfect photo now – whether it is for the books or for social media – is simply cranking up the camera settings to the highest-resolutions to capture quality and detailed images. For some devices, artificial intelligence can even now further assist our manual inputs to provide us with the sharpest photographs available at the push of a button.

While investing time in learning the full range of your smartphone camera’s features and functionality can help, getting the right setting for the perfect shot each time may require more time. In those instances, some phones come with powerful cameras that will save you the time and hassle of getting the ideal image. For example, the Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra’s camera comes with a complex AI system – its Advanced Single Take feature will capture the best picture and clips behind the shutter, and you’ll have access to up to 10 photos and 4 videos in just one shot for your viewing and saving needs.

Making the Best of Manual Photography Apps and Other Features

For seasoned photographers looking to seize more control over how their photos look, they can also look towards their smartphones for access to finer capturing and editing needs. For some smartphones, the camera may have a manual mode feature built in to enable a greater range of options for the user. Whether you have experience with photography or simply exploring the possibilities available to you, making use of the manual photography mode on your smartphone like the Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra’s Pro Mode can help give you the extra perfect shot, with options to change your shutter speed, aperture, ISO, focus, and more, giving you more leeway and control in your shots.

Also, with basic settings available across nearly all devices – such as turning on the gridlines when taking photos to help you better compose your shots – wider shots can prove to be more challenging. Generally, the ultrawide sensor on any phone can be more difficult to work with. However, on the Galaxy Note20 Ultra, the dynamic range allows you to take better landscape shots. With the telephoto, its periscope system enables you to extend its optical zoom range to 5x, and with its “Space Zoom”, the combination of the optical and digital zooms lets you get into an impressive 50x for those ultra-distant shots.

Editing your Photos Digitally Through Your Phone

While you can throw on a preset filter onto your photos, sometimes you need to go the extra mile to create a photograph that is truly memorable, and uniquely yours. Learning the art of editing will help take your photography skills a step higher. A camera can take you only so far, after all. Some basic skills on photo editing, even ones you can pick up by reading or watching tutorials online can go a long way, forming the basis of the new skills you can pick up on your journey to improving your photography skills.

With the range of apps currently available on your smartphone, editing on the go has never been easier. Whether it is adjusting the exposure, saturation or touching up minor blemishes to make that photo picture perfect, the right smartphone can assist you with capturing the pixel perfect image that only requires enhancements to be professional and polished. Sometimes, a simple auto adjust will be sufficient in modifying the images contrast, brightness, and saturation. Other times, you will need to rely on your own eyes and build on your own experience to know if the image is good enough for your needs. Either way, modern smartphones can ensure you have good shots as you hone your skills further. Get creative with adjusting lighting and saturation and play around with editing to gain new perspectives otherwise unavailable on your device.

Ultimately, the first thing viewers see when looking at your images are what is in it, not how it was edited. With editing, less is often more – moderate adjustments combined with minimal use of filters can be used to beautify the photo. Finding the right device with a camera you are comfortable working with should take priority, with editing skills only used to further amplify areas of the image you want your viewers focusing on.

Smartphone Cameras and the Evolution of Modern Photography

Today’s smartphone camera technology makes it possible to capture practically any scene with the simple swipe of a finger. However, having the right tool can still impact your photo-taking journey, and the Galaxy Note20 Ultra is on par with the best phones out there, with additional tools still deeply imbued within its hardware and software to enable the perfect picture-taking experience. With a good eye and a powerful camera you can use anywhere, you’ll be capturing the best memorable photos without missing a good moment.

Business, Contributed

Four Steps to Accelerate Your Machine Learning Journey

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This is the golden age of machine learning­ (ML). Once considered peripheral, ML technology is becoming a core part of businesses around the world, regardless of the industry. By 2021, the International Data Corporation (IDC) estimates that spending on artificial intelligence (AI) and other cognitive technologies will exceed $50 billion.

Locally, 25% of organizations say they are setting aside at least 10% of their budget for technology, which includes investments in big data analytics (64%), cloud computing (57%), Machine Learning and artificial intelligence (33%), and robotic process automation (27%), based on the Malaysian Institute of Accountants’ “MIA-ACCA Business Outlook Report 2020″. [1] As more companies gain awareness of the importance of ML, they should work towards getting it in motion as quickly and effectively as possible.

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At Amazon, we have been on our own ML journey for more than two decades – applying it to areas like personalization, supply chain management, and forecasting systems for our fulfillment process. Today, there is not a single business function at Amazon that is not made better through machine learning.

Whether your company is just getting started or in the middle of your first implementation, here are the four steps you should take to have a successful machine learning journey.  

Get Your Data in Order

When it comes to adopting machine learning, data is often cited as the number one challenge. We found that more than 50% of time spent in building ML models can be spent in data wrangling, data cleanup, and pre-processing stages. Therefore, prioritize investing in the establishment of a strong data strategy to avoid spending excessive time and resources on data cleanup and management.

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When starting out, the three most important questions to ask are:

  • What data is available today?
  • What data can be made available?
  • A year from now, what data will we wish we had started collecting today?

In order to determine what data is available today, you will need to overcome data hugging – the tendency for teams to gatekeep data they work with most closely. Breaking down silos between teams for a more expansive view of the data landscape while still maintaining data governance is crucial for long-term success.

Additionally, identify what data actually matters as part of your machine learning approach. Think about best ways to store data and invest early in the data processing tools for de-identification and/or anonymization, if needed.

Identify the Right Business Problems

When evaluating what and how to apply ML, focus on assessing the problem across three dimensions: data readiness, business impact, and machine learning applicability.

Balancing speed with business value is key. Instead of trying to embark on a three-year ML project, focus on a handful of critical business use cases that could be solved in the upcoming six to 10 months. Start by identifying places where you already have a lot of untapped data and evaluate if machine learning brings benefits. Avoid picking a problem that is flashy but has unclear business value, as it will end up becoming a one-off experiment.

Champion a Culture of Machine Learning

In order to scale, you need to champion a culture of machine learning. At its core, ML is experimentation­. Therefore, it is imperative that your organization embrace failures and take a long-term view of what is possible.

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Businesses also need to combine a blend of technical and domain experts to work backward from the customer problem. Assembling the right group of people also helps eliminate the cultural barrier to adoption with a quicker buy-in from the business.

Similarly, leaders should constantly find ways to simplify the process of ML adoption for their developers. Since building ML infrastructures at scale is a time and labor-intensive process, leaders should encourage their teams to use tools that cover the entire ML workflow to build, train, and deploy these models efficiently.

For instance, 123RF, a homegrown stock photography portal, aims to make design smarter, faster, and easier for users. To do so, it relies on Amazon Athena, Amazon Kinesis, and AWS Lambda for data pipeline processing. Its newer products like Designs.ai Videomaker uses Amazon Polly to create voice-overs in more than 10 different languages. With AWS, 123RF has maintained flexibility in scaling its infrastructure and shortened product development cycles and is looking to incorporate other services to support its machine learning & AI research.

Develop Your Team

Developing your team is essential to foster a successful machine learning culture. Rather than spending resources to recruit new talent in a competitive market, hone in on developing your company’s internal talent through robust training programs.

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Years ago, Amazon created an in-house Machine Learning University (MLU) to help its own developers sharpen their ML skills or equip neophytes with tools to get started. We made the same machine learning courses available to all developers through AWS’s Training and Certification offering.

DBS Bank, a Singaporean multinational bank, employed a different approach. It is collaborating with AWS to train its employees to program their own ML-powered AWS DeepRacer autonomous 1/18th scale car, and race among themselves at the DBS x AWS DeepRacer League. Through this initiative, it aims to train at least 3,000 employees to be conversant in AI and ML by year end.

[1] MIA (Malaysian Institute of Accountants) and ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants), Business Outlook Report 2020, 2020

Android, Contributed, Mobile

Safeguard your Smartphone and Become a Cybersecurity Wiz

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The question of ‘hackability’ and the overall security of our smartphones is one of those issues that seems to pop up in the news. After all, we use our smartphones for just about anything – sharing photos, ordering food, shopping online, sending emails and messages, banking and financial services, etc. – without realising all of the ways we could be putting our device and ourselves at risk, allowing cyber-criminals to get access to our sensitive data.

While many of us are better informed today about the potential dangers of being connected on our smartphones, hackers and cyber-criminals are also changing their methods of attack. As the global pandemic have left many of us stuck at home and more reliant than ever on our mobile devices, cyber-criminals have also adapted new ways to target users. Over the Movement Control Order (MCO), cybersecurity cases spiked by 82.5% compared to the same time last year, with 18% attributed to attacks against local companies and the remaining linked to home users and others[1].

Recognising Cyberattacks and the Need for Cyber-resilience

Among the new waves of attacks brought on by the pandemic are COVID-19 themed phishing lures, high-risk fake domains, and scams[2]. These new methods employed by cyber-criminals are aimed at taking advantage of the public fear of the virus, combined with heightened stress levels from unfamiliar ways of working. The most common attacks in Malaysia can be attributed to phishing attempts, the spread of malicious code via untrustworthy websites, and passwords, as below:

  • Phishing Emails – Reports have found that 91% of all attacks begin with a phishing email to an unsuspecting victim, with 32% of all successful breaches involve the use of phishing techniques[3]. While many of us have been educated on recognising phishing emails, these attacks are still effective, and can fool even tech-savvy individuals.
  • Malicious Websites – Compromised websites is a main avenue for spreading malware infections on mobile devices. Limiting your browsing activity to reputable websites can reduce the possibility of infection.
  • Password Security – A survey revealed that 59% of respondents use the same password for multiple accounts, citing convenience and a fear of forgetting their password as the reason for this practice[4]. However, this allows cyber-criminals to access all your accounts easily through one single credential. Therefore, it is advisable to use different passwords across accounts.

Cyberattacks continue to grow day-by-day, and it is crucial that we learn to minimise risk, with good cyber habits being a pivotal and essential first step in combatting threats.

Defending your Smartphone, the Moment it is Turned On

As such, while it is important to take steps and measures to protect yourself online, it is also crucial to have a strong security platform on your smartphone, helping you encrypt and secure confidential data. Most smartphone breaches happen because they may not be equipped with advanced security measures, have outdated systems that may not be able to withstand current attacks. Similarly, smartphone owners may also not consider the importance of securing their phones or performing regular security check-ups. However, there are certain devices that come with a safe and secure in-built mobile interface to keep your personal data protected.

For example, Samsung Knox sets a foundation of security to users at both the hardware and software level as a security platform that’s integrated within Samsung smartphones, tablets, and wearables to protect it against malicious threats. Whether it is protection against phishing attacks or potential malware infections, the Samsung Knox platform has security integrated into its DNA, providing multi-layered security with data encryption and run-time protection within Samsung devices to keep sensitive information safe from online threats. Users can safeguard passwords, save private files under a secured folder, and even secure mobile transactions with Samsung Knox. Getting to know your security platforms is just as important when considering the range of services that is available to ensure that it is updated to meet global information and technology security requirements. This helps its users stay ahead of the modern-day threats with its game-changing security features.

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Given that smartphone usage has only grown exponentially over the past few years, it is important that we have more security platforms allowing us the freedom and peace-of-mind in staying connected. Similar to how Samsung Knox have.

On top of having a top-tier security platform for your data, having that protection extended to all the essentials in a mobile device is equally important. While many of us are familiar with installing apps on our phones, we may be unfamiliar with the authenticity of the sources producing these apps. Learning to identify unverified and suspicious sources can help users identify potentially harmful apps.

Similar to how Samsung devices come built-in with Google Mobile Services (GMS) to help ensure that your vital applications have the latest updates and patches from verified sources, using trusted sources from well-known app stores like Google Play can help protect you from downloading and installing apps that can harm your devices.

Staying Secure, Safe, and Savvy about Security

Cyberattacks are nothing new, the challenge is in identifying and combatting the updated approach that many cybercriminals are using when it comes to their targets and the frequency of their attacks. Whether it is a hacking attempt by a third-party app or a fraud email redirecting you to a malicious website, most cybercriminals have one common goal: exploit your personal data and use that data to make profit. As such, it is critical that we keep our sensitive information protected at all costs, with the help of a smartphone built with highly advanced security features to always keep you safe from unwanted threats.

[1] https://www.thestar.com.my/news/focus/2020/04/12/cybersecurity-cases-rise-by-825

[2] https://home.kpmg/my/en/home/media/press-releases/2020/04/cybercrime-and-scams-have-been-successful.html

[3] https://www2.deloitte.com/my/en/pages/risk/articles/91-percent-of-all-cyber-attacks-begin-with-a-phishing-email-to-an-unexpected-victim.html

[4] https://www.computerweekly.com/news/252440316/Password-practices-still-poor-despite-increased-threats

Business, Contributed

CFO, CIO Collaboration Is Crucial For COVID-19 Era – And Beyond

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In this COVID-19 global pandemic era, there is not a single CFO out there who isn’t scrutinizing their company’s spend. It has been very challenging for Malaysian businesses as well – with a weakening economy, supply chain disruptions, knock-on effects from troubled sectors and loss of jobs.

Fortunately, data’s role has exploded in the business world and is favourably impacting the situation. To properly assess a company’s financial position, a CFO needs to be able to effectively access data. The key is to take a large amount of information and narrow it down to action items. Effectively harnessing important data can be an issue.

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IT has evolved from being a background cost centre generating reports used to close the books, to a place where data is housed, manipulated and made available, which is key to running a successful business. IT is no longer in the background, carrying out mundane operations; it is capturing vital data and is now a strategic voice in running a business. When a CFO can effectively capture and analyse data, he or she can improve specific strategic areas. As a result, there is an increasing collaboration between CFOs and CIOs as IT formats data and provides insight into what might be most helpful to Finance.

The COVID-19 Challenges

While financial scrutiny is applicable to all areas, IT is different because most CFOs do not know all the specific technological nuances for his or her company. As the pandemic forces businesses to deal with unprecedented financial challenges and pressures, the CIO needs to help provide perspective to the CFO for necessary actions and what items might be able to be temporarily suspended without harming the business.

Buying IT equipment requires cash, and all companies are looking at actions to maximize cash flow and minimize expenses as COVID-19 impacts the global economy. Some expenditures are going to have to be delayed as cash is prioritized away from capital expenses. Most CFOs will not know what IT department costs to reduce without a collaborative conversation with the CIO.

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One strategy I consistently employ with our CIO, which has been extremely helpful during this crisis, is a regularly scheduled, detailed review of all ad-hoc expenses across the company, looking for technology items that should be aggregated or are not compliant with standards. This is an area that requires CIO input and experience.

Relying on Each Other

It is very difficult for CFOs to keep up with IT. It evolves so rapidly and requires specialty knowledge; generalists are left in the dust when it comes to technological progress. A CFO can measure costs but determining capabilities and staying ahead of what is on the horizon requires a specialist, a CIO. At the same time, technology often offers glitzy, fancy new toys, and it is imperative that IT professionals stay focused on what type of capital is available, what they want to spend it on, and how their values are aligned with the business.

Communication and collaboration with our CIO to work on business cases for development projects helps validate the financials of the project. A working knowledge of the ever-changing standards in technology protects financial projections and budgets.

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CFOs are focused on maintaining normal business activity without increasing expenses. Industry analyst Gartner has reported for many years that third party maintenance is less expensive than what OEMs offer. And the service is just as good if not better. If anybody came to you and demonstrated, “You’re paying $100,000 for this service; I can do it for $50,000-$60,000 and I’m going to do it better,” there’s not a CFO who wouldn’t take that deal, but it would require CIO scrutiny and knowledge.

I.T.’s Unique Contributions

In my collaborations with I.T. leaders, I have learned that I.T. is uniquely positioned to scan the entire company for technology-enabled improvements: revenue opportunities, productivity increases and cost savings. When the CIO and the CFO collaborate to find and implement these improvements, the company becomes more effective than if a siloed approach is taken on a per-department basis.

While COVID-19 is a challenge, it also presents an opportunity to identify improvements. As people are suddenly forced into working in a different model, the traditional ways of doing business can be challenged more quickly. A collaboration between the CIO and the CFO in looking at the results of the workforce being sent home may present opportunities in office utilization, software purchases, hardware deployment and other areas.

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While hardware and software expenses are relatively easy to monitor and measure against the company’s metrics, the implementation of IT projects is a key collaboration area for CFOs and CIOs. Every project brought forward to IT can have cost structures that include outside purchases as well as internal labour. Projects need to bring value to the company; and the calculation of that value, perhaps in the form of ROI, requires CIO and CFO collaboration to accurately calculate the value and measure the results after the project is in place.

With our CIO, I consult with an ongoing process analysis team that looks for cost reduction opportunities that won’t impact customer satisfaction. This input is key to make sure a potential financial decision that may benefit the company does not negatively impact customer service.

The Park Place Difference

CFOs will not know that value without CIOs sharing the information. For example, CFOs and CIOs together can protect their business revenues and their business-critical IT by “sweating” their IT assets longer through value-added life-cycle support services. Maximizing payback and ROI on hardware infrastructure can yield financial benefits for the longer term.

There is a new category to look out for: Discover, Monitor, Support and Optimize (DMSO), that Park Place Technologies is uniquely positioned to deliver for its customers. It is a fully integrated approach to managing critical infrastructure that can help businesses manage data centre remotely, optimise network performance with analytics, and simplify the management of complex hybrid environments while realising cost-saving.  

As businesses continue their digital transformations, they depend on data that resides on-premises, in public and private clouds, devices at the edge and networks, and operation centers that span the globe. Managing these complex environments is increasingly becoming more difficult. Exponential increases in time, labor and cost, as well as the complexity of navigating a maze of service providers to establish clear accountability and support, requires a more intelligent and flexible approach as DMSO. We are all hoping the COVID-19 era passes quickly. But the long-term necessity and benefits of CFOs and CIOs collaborating will continue well beyond the current crisis and will remain an ongoing part of any business’s evolution, strategy and long-term health

Business, Contributed

The Future of Work: A Shift from HQ to Business Center

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Up until the early part of this year, simple daily activities such as taking a train to work, entering a crowded elevator, and sitting down in an open workspace with colleagues were things no one would hesitate to do, and perhaps even took for granted. The appearance of the COVID-19 pandemic changed that in almost an instant. For employers and employees, the workplace experience moving forward may never be the same, ever again. Businesses are undergoing massive changes in a transformation process to meet the needs and demands of the post-pandemic world.

What does that look like for an enterprise? The answer is simple: create a new model of hybrid working where employees continue to work remotely, only coming into the office to collaborate on projects. In this scenario, the office then turns into a business center – or collaboration space – which may also indicate the end of the open office era and a shift in the purpose of a company’s headquarters as we once knew it.

We all know that this shift is here to stay. According to recent research from Gartner, 82 percent of company leaders are planning to let employees work remotely, at least some of the time. And a new global Lenovo study finds that employees expect a similar swing in employer mentality, with 52 percent of respondents noting they believe they’ll continue to work from home more than they did pre-COVID-19 – even after social distancing measures lift.

As employers realize that this distributed workforce is not going anywhere, the shift to the office as a business center will only continue to grow. This will make the need for a solid IT foundation, inclusive of dependable employee personal devices, strong cybersecurity software (and education), and remote IT support even more integral than it once was.

In looking at the role of technology and how it has evolved during this pandemic, we can take a step back to when COVID-19 first started to impact businesses globally. The number of remote employees increased at a pace more rapid than anyone expected or was even prepared to handle. As a result, collaboration tools such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom saw usage skyrocket, with Teams seeing an increase of users as much as 70 percent and Zoom revenue soars 169 percent ever since the pandemic first struck. In this process, as employees and consumers alike started leaning on videos to spend time with coworkers – whether for meetings or company “happy hours” – these tools evolved their functionalities to make the user experience more seamless.

Today, employers have started to realize that their employees have been just as productive from home as they would have been in the office. Lenovo’s research shows that almost two-thirds of the global workforce surveyed feel they are more productive working from home than in the office. So, the question then becomes – why bring them back to the office, and why not instead save on real estate costs and invest in stronger technology to equip a hybrid workforce?

With that mindset, technology will only continue to evolve to meet employee and employer needs. Beyond collaboration software, the other tools that remain central for employee productivity in our hybrid work environment include personal laptops, noise-canceling headsets, and large monitors.

In the office, that may mean creating a “touchless environment” where employees have their collaboration technology to minimize physical contact. Or it may mean creating smaller phone booths and huddle spaces as a move away from the open floorplan, which could be equipped with standalone video software making it easy to collaborate from one room to the next. On the go, it may be arming employees with a foldable PC that makes it easier and more convenient to transition from the office to a coffee shop to home or anywhere in between. And at home, it may require employers to invest in products employees need for their “home office,” such as standing desks or ergonomic chairs.

For IT departments, this makes it integral to invest in the infrastructure that enables IT to manage a large remote workforce. This can include increasing cloud storage for more remote storage, doubling down on security solutions to manage the increase in cyber threats, and remote IT solutions to help troubleshoot employee tech issues from afar.

While the new “business center” model may not be a fit for all organizations, one thing we know is that office as we know it will be different in the coming years. Work from anywhere will become a norm, company real estate footprints may shrink, and employees will expect much more of their employers than ever before.

Computers, Contributed

5 Reasons to Put Your Old PCs Out to Pasture

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In today’s uncertain times, a PC modernization strategy can both turbo charge employee productivity and deliver a competitive edge.

It’s tempting with the rapid rise of remote work due to COVID-19 to think that out of sight is out of mind when it comes to your PCs. If your employees can still hop on a video call, they must be working at maximum productivity. The truth is much more complicated.

If your organization, like so many others, has a four-year PC refresh cycle, the new wave of remote work should, if anything, accelerate that cycle. Even before the current global health crisis, users were becoming more mobile than ever before, raising risks around security, flexibility, efficiency and efficacy.

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While the precautionary and voluntary remote work continues, IT staff is also facing unprecedented challenges. Onboarding employees, supporting current ones, and maintaining systems for maximum productivity are challenges they are struggling to solve, all while trying to stay afloat with their higher-level duties.

Managing aging systems at scale is difficult when everyone is in one place, and with that becoming rare, the issues multiply exponentially. No business can afford unplanned down time on a regular basis, and employees can grow increasingly frustrated as their productivity drops.

“Aged systems are costing businesses in terms of lost productivity and security risk, and with much of the workforce remote now, IT managers are faced with even bigger maintenance and support challenges.” says  Peter Chambers, Managing Director, APAC at AMD.

Speaking of aging systems, TechAisle found way back in 2016 that it can cost as much as $1,700 per year to maintain PCs older than 4 years. Those kinds of hidden costs can creep up on a business, raising TCO.

If your organization still sees PC refreshes as a luxury, try seeing it instead as an opportunity to unlock immense improvements in productivity, performance and collaboration. The AMD Ryzen™ PRO 4000 family of processors and partner platforms, for example, cover all the bases for any organization’s modern computing needs, delivering a straight line to productivity and PC modernization.

Still need convincing? Here are five great reasons to perform a PC refresh now.

Turbocharge performance. Here is the new reality of work in 2020: increased complexity, juggling workloads, mega multi-tasking, and operating remotely. Offering the most cores and threads in a mobile business processor for ultra-thin notebooks with the Ryzen 7 PRO 4750U processor, AMD Ryzen PRO processors deliver top-of-line performance and responsiveness across a wide variety of workloads, from crunching data to rendering videoconference calls to compiling code.

For example, the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 4750U platform delivers up to 37% faster performance running Microsoft Office in PCMark 10 Applications benchmark compared to the previous generation Ryzen 5 PRO 3700U processor.  In addition, the same AMD platform offers up to 19% faster performance in Microsoft Word, up to 77% faster performance in Excel, and up to 27% faster performance in PowerPoint versus the previous generation.

This leadership performance comes without compromise to battery life. AMD Ryzen PRO processors help to maximize workforce productivity by offering up to 20 hours of battery life on a premium platform.

Improve security features. Protecting sensitive corporate data has never been more important. Modern notebooks and PCs are often never fully turned off, raising the threat for stolen data. AMD Ryzen PRO processors, featuring AMD PRO security, deliver a multi-layered approach to security features, helping protect data from sophisticated attacks and avoiding downtime. In addition to a set of silicon and firmware-level security features, AMD Ryzen Pro processors employ AMD Memory Guard system memory encryption to help reduce the threat of physical memory attacks even if the laptop is left in standby mode.

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Make IT management a breeze. IT departments, already spread thin, need all the help they can get with supporting remote workers. AMD PRO Manageability is a full cross-platform feature set enabled on all PRO processors that simplifies remote device management. With AMD PRO manageability, IT can manage a mixed environment of PCs in their fleet with ease, from simplified deployment with Windows® Autopilot, to efficient patch management to address security vulnerabilities, to ongoing management for a wide range of system issues.  AMD Ryzen PRO processors also fully enable support for Microsoft Endpoint Manager – a cloud-powered set of management tools to provision, deploy, manage, and secure endpoints and applications across an organization.  

Boost efficiency. Simply put, organizations need the latest hardware to drive today’s modern software experiences. There are also significant stealth costs associated with legacy systems, including on-going maintenance and repair services, that chip away at the bottom line and exceed the cost of upgrading PCs or laptops. New PCs powered by Ryzen PRO processors help boost efficiency by delivering leadership performance and up to 20hours of battery life on a premium platform – driving up productivity by eliminating downtime that comes with aged hardware issues such as long start up time, frequent crashes, and shortened battery life, and all things being equal, by helping to lower TCO with reduced power consumption vis a vis a high efficiency processor. 

With enterprise-grade quality, long-term reliability, and planned software stability, new PCs with Ryzen PRO processors can bring peace of mind to organizations and are a logical choice for today’s remote and highly mobile workforce.

Choose wisely and benefit. Whether it’s a notebook or desktop, AMD Ryzen PRO processors are available in a wide range of commercial OEM products across varying price points, giving enterprises an array of options to accommodate different budgets and user needs.

Even during a pandemic, business keeps moving faster than ever. Your organization cannot afford to slow down when there are so many options to keep your competitive edge and employee productivity high.

To learn more, visit the following links:

https://www.amd.com/en/where-to-buy/commercial-systems

https://www.amd.com/en/processors/laptop-processors-for-business

https://www.amd.com/en/ryzen-pro

https://www.amd.com/en/technologies/pro-technologies

https://community.amd.com/community/amd-business/blog/2020/05/07/the-new-standard-for-modern-business-notebooks-amd-ryzen-pro-mobile-processors

A properly configured HP EliteBook 835 G7 with AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 4750U Processor, gets up to 24 hours of MM14 battery life: https://press.hp.com/us/en/press-releases/2020/hp-provides-ultimate-office-experience-at-home.html  Actual battery life will vary based on several factors, including, but not limited to: system configuration and software, settings, product use and age, and operating conditions. AMD has not independently tested or verified the battery life claim. See www.bapco.com for additional details. RNP-28

As of February 2020. “Most Cores and Threads” in a mobile business processor for ultrathin notebooks.  RNP-19

*Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) – the cost to purchase + cost of operation. Electricity is a cost of operation; therefore, higher efficiency processors can enable a lower TCO than low efficiency processors that use more power.

[1]Small Business PC Study, TechAisle, 2016

Business, Contributed

Can cybersecurity keep up with flexible work arrangements?

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2020 will be remembered as the year the world experienced its largest ever work-from-home experiment as the global pandemic forced businesses to move operations online and adapt to a new distributed workforce.

As some markets around the globe gradually ease some restrictions and allow employees to go back to the office, the situation remains in a delicate balance and work as we know it has been redefined for many. Increasingly, organisations are embracing the new work model and the many benefits that come with it including increased employee well-being and better work-life balance. In fact, some organisations are now establishing permanent work-from-home policies with 60 percent of the largest companies integrating flexible virtual-physical collaborative environments by 2021, according to Bain & Company. This is supported by Lenovo’s Work From Home survey which found that nearly half (46 percent) of employees are as productive when working from home as they are in the office, with 15 percent saying that productivity increases at home.

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The survey also found that 87 percent of workers feel somewhat ready to adapt to a distributed, work-from-anywhere environment if required. So too are cybercriminals. The looming uncertainty among employees of the delicate, everchanging global circumstances, combined with their unfamiliarity with the new work arrangement, has created a wealth of opportunities for cyber-attacks. Cyber criminals are taking advantage of the situation to launch COVID-themed attacks, phishing attempts and spread fake news. In Malaysia, cybersecurity cases have seen a surge of more than 90% during the Movement Control Order (MCO) so far compared to the same period last year, CyberSecurity Malaysia revealed.

Watch for your blind spots

With employees accessing confidential data from various devices, locations, and unsecured networks, it opens more endpoints and vulnerabilities for cyberattacks. In our hyper-digital and mobile world, hardware security is becoming ever more critical, as across the globe, each person is expected to own 6.58 network connected devices in 2020. In fact, according to cybersecurity solutions provider Sepio Systems, there has been a 300 percent increase in the number of new connected devices from unknown vendors attached to the enterprise network.

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While a majority of employees are working primarily from home, it is only a matter of time before they begin heading back to shared workspaces, coffee shops and planes and once again enjoy the flexibility of working from anywhere. This means that an organisation’s network, database and confidential files may be accessed from unsecured VPNs, unknown networks, and rogue access points. Without proper security standards put in place, hackers can easily gain access to an organisation’s network via vulnerable devices and execute attacks remotely. Organisations must take this into consideration and be on the offensive to mitigate potential attacks before malicious entities infiltrate company systems and confidential data.

Adopt a Zero Trust mindset

The nature of a distributed workforce removes the luxury of face-to-face identification and validation. Tech Wire Asia reported that cyber scams based on COVID-19 becomes prevalent in recent months, as hackers look to capitalize on the virus-driven uncertainty affecting individuals, enterprises, and governments. This means that organisations must double down on their efforts in credential and access management and continue to educate employees to identify and weed out impersonation scams and phishing attempts. As hackers grow in sophistication, organisations and employees must take a Zero Trust. In order to protect business and employee data, organisations must implement a system to ensure that the right people have access to the right data at the right time, on a ‘need-to-know’ basis.

Empowering a distributed workforce with cybersecurity

To reap the full benefits of a distributed workforce in the long run, organisations must provide employees with secure devices and create a safe digital environment to operate in, allowing them to focus on the job at hand. This shift to a decentralised work environment means that IT teams must have extended visibility over digital platforms and the organisations digital ecosystems in order to identify and mitigate potential threats in a timely manner.

However, with the shortage of cyber talent and growing digital footprint, this can take a toll on IT teams. IT teams must be supported to enhance their capabilities with solutions that provide both hardware and software security. For example, Lenovo’s ThinkShield solution helps secure devices from development through disposal, giving IT admins more visibility into end points and providing easier and more secure authentication. Lenovo has also partnered with SentinelOne to leverage its behavioral AI technology to predict tomorrow’s attacks today and allow ThinkShield devices to predict cyberattacks and enable devices to self-heal from any attack instantaneously, adding another critical layer to our ThinkShield offering.

As employees have quickly adapted to new work structures in these unique times, organisations must also embrace the risk that comes with it and put in place the right measures and solutions to create a secure and robust environment for employees to operate in. One way Lenovo helps organisations empower employees is by offering services that supports remote workers. For employees who do not have access to IT helpdesks, Lenovo’s Premier Support allows for direct, 24/7 access to elite Lenovo engineers who provide unscripted troubleshooting and comprehensive support for hardware and software. This results in less downtime for end users when things go wrong, freeing IT staff up to focus on strategic efforts.

Only then will organisations and employees be able to reap the full benefits of a distributed workforce and build a stronger digital foundation to effectively navigate and succeed in the new world of work.

Business, Contributed

The Top Skills a Cloud Architect Needs to Be Successful

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As the world rapidly evolves, digitalization is taking place across all aspects of life, and ushering in a rise in cloud adoption. Today, it is vital for employees to understand and acquire the skills it takes to succeed and stay relevant for jobs in the digital economy. Cloud architects must keep up with the pace by adapting and expanding their existing skillset in order to be considered valuable candidates and employees.

As cloud adoption rises, it is not surprising to see growing demand for cloud expertise. Based on the Malaysian Institute of Accounts’ “MIA-ACCA Business Outlook Report 2020,” 25% of organizations in Malaysia say they are allocating at least 10% of their budget for technology, including investing in big data analytics (64%), cloud computing (57%) and more.[1] Yet, research shows that 90% of IT decision-makers report cloud skills shortages in their workforce.[2]

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When I first started out in the IT industry years ago, the role of cloud architect was almost nonexistent. However, cloud adoption has grown considerably since then, and the role of cloud architect is currently in high demand and will continue to present endless opportunities for business growth and innovation.

But first – what does a cloud architect do?

Cloud architects are responsible for managing an organization’s cloud computing architecture. They have in-depth knowledge of the architectural principles and services used to develop technical cloud strategy, assist with cloud migration efforts, review workload architectures, and provide guidance on how to address high-risk issues. To do this, cloud architects need a mix of business, technical, and people skills, as well as an understanding of the always-evolving, technical training that may benefit their team.

At Amazon Web Services (AWS), I lead a team of cloud solutions architect in Southeast Asia, and we are constantly on the lookout for individuals with a builder’s mentality and a desire to build, invent, and innovate on behalf of their customers. This is especially important as the role of cloud architect has evolved beyond just architecting infrastructure solutions like database and storage, to building and innovating reliable solutions that involve emerging technologies such as machine learning.

What skills are most important for a cloud architect?

Flexibility and Eagerness to Learn

A cloud architect must be able to work in a wide variety of scenarios and be open to learn the unique requirements of each project. With a curious mind-set, cloud architects can be better equipped to seek out new approaches to problem solving.

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Time Management

Cloud architecture professionals must possess strong time management skills. Their days are varied and can include customer meetings to discuss problems and needs and designing architectural frameworks for those needs. As such, cloud architects are mindful to plan their days, prioritize their time on tasks, and understand how to maximize small pockets of time.

Communication Skills, Business Acumen, and Decisiveness

Cloud architects are encouraged to ask for a seat at the decision-making table and be prepared to communicate their design to any stakeholder. Successful cloud architects know how to communicate to audiences with little or no technical knowledge, while aligning their recommendations to business imperatives and the bottom-line. Other than that, stakeholders also rely on cloud architects to provide guidance from a calm, leading place of domain authority.

Industry Technical Credentials

A cloud architect must also possess the necessary technical skills to serve as the foundation for cloud architecture planning and management, including basic programming, software development and continuous integration, database, networking and security skills, modern application architecture skills, and more.

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Additionally, cloud architects can attain an industry-recognized certification, such as the new AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate certification, which validates the ability to design and deploy well-architected solutions on AWS that meet customer requirements.

Over the last few years, I have seen cloud computing evolve from a relatively unknown technology to a leading driver of business results. While the technology has grown and changed significantly, most skills needed to succeed in its use have remained largely constant. By committing to understand how to use cloud to its full potential – and empowering the professionals who make that possible – we can make the most of the tremendous opportunity cloud creates for businesses and employees to thrive.

[1] MIA (Malaysian Institute of Accountants) and ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants), Business Outlook Report 2020, 2020

[2] Global Knowledge, 2018 IT Skills and Salary Report, 2018.